Governments and environmentalists gather
at launch of
United Nations Convention on environmental democracy
Environmental rights will top the agenda of the first meeting of the parties
to the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in
Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters - the Aarhus
Convention - which opens on 21 October 2002 in Lucca, Italy.
The Aarhus Convention, which came into force on 30 October 2001, seeks to
strengthen the role of the public and non-governmental organizations in environmental
decision-making. While essentially an instrument of international environmental
policy, the Convention is also perceived as an instrument that actively promotes
democracy and human rights. It has been described by the United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan as "the most ambitious venture in the area of 'environmental
democracy' so far undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations".
To date, 22 countries have ratified the Convention.
Hosted by the Italian Government, the meeting will gather over 150 government
representatives, among them 11 ministers and 14 deputy ministers of environment,
from virtually all fifty-five member countries of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (UNECE).1 Representatives of a number of
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, such as the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the World Bank and the Regional Environmental Center (REC)
will also participate.
The first day will be reserved for policy discussions at the ministerial
level with the participation of ministers, representatives of national parliaments
and NGOs. The ministerial segment will culminate in the adoption of the Lucca
Declaration on Monday, 21 October 2002.
Among other things, the meeting is expected to:
- adopt guidelines on genetically modified organisms, to strengthen
access to information, public participation and access to justice in this
field;
- give the go-ahead to a new protocol on pollutant release and transfer
registers, which will require potentially polluting industries to report
annually to the public on their emissions of certain pollutants;
- establish an innovative compliance mechanism for the Convention
that will accept and follow up on communications from the public about alleged
non-compliance;
- establish a new task force on electronic information tools to
improve public access to information in electronic form throughout the region
and bridge the 'digital divide';
- establish a new task force on access to justice, which will provide
a forum for the exchange of information on good practices and thereby aim
to overcome obstacles preventing the public from challenging environmental
decisions; and
- put in place the Convention's institutional 'architecture', including
through adopting rules of procedure which will provide for unprecedented
representation of NGOs (in an observer capacity) in the Bureau of the Convention's
governing body.
In addition to the official programme, an important side-event will take
place immediately before the opening of the meeting. On 19-20 October 2002,
the European ECO Forum will host an International ECO-Conference entitled
"Public Participation: The Road From Words To Practice!" in the
Hotel Carignano, in Carignano-Lucca.
The meeting will take place in San Romano, a former church now transformed
into a modern conference centre. A press conference will be held at the meeting
venue on Monday, 21 October 2002 at 1 p.m.
For more information, please refer to the Convention's web site http://www.unece.org/env/pp
or contact:
Jeremy Wates
Secretary to the Aarhus Convention
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements Division
Palais des Nations, Office 332
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41(0)22 917 23 84, +39 0583 467 265, +39 0583 469 855
Fax: + 41(0)22 907 01 07, +39 0583 467 265
Mobile: +41(0)79 217 30 36 or +41(0)79 476 73 28
E-mail: [email protected]
________
1 Environment Ministers or Deputy Ministers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Georgia, Hungary, Italy,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Yugoslavia will participate
in the meeting.
Ref: ECE/ENV/02/10